Program Overview

On this history of art degree, you’ll learn about the most important periods in the history of European art whilst exploring the arts of other cultures, from prehistory to the present day, across Europe, the Americas, India, Africa and Asia. You’ll engage with artworks from pre-history right through to the present, and with a wide variety of art forms including painting, sculpture, photography and video art, architecture, and installation and performance art.

In your first year, you’ll establish firm foundations for the study of works of art from a variety of traditions. In your second and third years, you’ll select from a range of optional modules focused on particular periods and addressing specific topics and themes in art history. These currently include the relationship between modern art and gender, contemporary art history, the fascinating world of medieval life, the role of the gallery and museum, indigenous art practices, and the politics of art in different historical contexts.

As well as expanding and deepening your knowledge and understanding of art, you will cultivate key intellectual and professional skills including the visual analysis of images, critical thinking, and confident communication.

You’ll have the opportunity to study the world-famous collection of art held in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. This means that in addition to its impressive collection of modern art you will have access to important artworks from Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. You will be able to study relevant objects first hand, while learning about the processes of collecting such objects in museums. You will also be taught by experts from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, who will encourage you to approach works of art from different perspectives.

This course is delivered by UEA’s world-leading department of Art History and World Art Studies. Our main areas of research are the history of art and architecture in Europe and North America; the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America; the archaeology and anthropology of art; and museum studies and cultural heritage.

We are part of a close network of internationally renowned centres for the study and display of art: the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.